Bone Scan in Evaluation of Bone Viability in Severe Frostbite of the Hand

Indian J Nucl Med. 2017 Oct-Dec;32(4):367-368. doi: 10.4103/ijnm.IJNM_53_17.

Abstract

A 39-year-old male presented to the emergency department (ED) with frostbite to the fingers of both hands. In the ED, he received warm baths, acetylsalicylic acid, clopidogrel, and heparin. A three-phase bone scintigraphy with technetium-99m-methylene diphosphonate revealed absent radiotracer uptake in distal phalanges of both hands. The patient received acetylsalicylic acid, clopidogrel and wound care for the next 5 days and made an excellent recovery with satisfactory wound healing in both hands. Early rapid rewarming and reperfusion can improve the prognosis significantly and therefore bone scan done within first 1-2 days may give spurious results.

Keywords: Bone scan; cold thermal injury; frostbite; hand.